EGYPT NORTH – The Trip

Egypt extends into Asia at the Sinai Peninsula. Egypt is bordered by Israel and the Gaza Strip to the northeast, by Sudan to the south and by Libya to the west. The country is bounded by the Mediterranean and Red Seas (to the north and east respectively) and geographically dominated both by the Nile River and its fertile well-watered valley and by the Eastern and Western deserts.
Egypt is perhaps best known as the home of the ancient Egyptian civilization, with its temples, hieroglyphs, mummies, and – visible above all – its pyramids. Less well-known is Egypt’s medieval heritage, courtesy of Coptic Christianity and Islam – ancient churches, monasteries and mosques punctuate the Egyptian landscape. Egypt stimulates the imagination of Western tourists like few other countries and is probably one of the most popular tourist destinations worldwide.

Tourism. Ever since the 2011 revolution, tourism (which provides about 15% of employment in Egypt, so one-sixth of the population are reliant upon it) has taken a major hit. Because of the downturn in tourism, expect more persistent and aggressive touts, but prices are lower and you can avoid the gigantic crowds that, at other periods, were typically overflowing the marvellous sites.
The more recent counter-revolution and Military putsch, like many events of its sort, has brought repression, death sentences and imprisonment for many Egyptians (and foreign journalists) but has resulted in lower crime and reduced disruption for well-heeled foreign tourists.
Climate. Egypt is largely a desert, an extension of the great Sahara that bands North Africa. Save for the thin strip of watered land along the Nile River broadening into the Nile delta, very little could survive here. Generally, the summers are hot and dry and the winters are moderate. November through March are the most comfortable months for travel in Egypt. There is almost no rain in the Nile Valley.
The north coast along the Mediterranean Sea 50km southwards receives some of the most heavy rain in the country during winter months.
Visitors should be aware that most houses and apartments in Cairo and Egypt do not have central heating

Money. Egyptian pound (EGP), often written as LE, (French livre égyptienne) or by using the pound sign £ with or without additional letters: E£ and £E.
Hoard your small bills! Egypt has a perpetual shortage of small bills and change: even banks are reluctant to break too many bills. Vendors will also perpetually say they don’t have change and want small bills. Hoard your small bills as much as you can, be prepared to make bank runs for change, and break your bills in the easiest situations such as large supermarkets.
Black Market Money. The Egyptian pound has been devaluing gradually over the last several decades. Since 2011, the exchange rate has become relatively unstable and inflation sped up. As of 2013, the Egyptian pound was worth about 11 times less than at its peak.
As of late 2016, the Central Bank has attempted to fix the value of the Egyptian Pound to the US dollar at a rate of EGP1:USD17.7. This has led to a shortage of foreign exchange and as of December 2014, a black market in foreign currency emerged. Dollars attract the greatest premium. Generally, high street foreign exchange offices will offer the black market rate – the rates they publish are to a large extent fictional.
Exchanging money and banks. In a black market economy, you can’t use banks or ATM.
Credit cards: Debit and credit cards are generally not accepted except at hotels, large supermarkets and shopping malls targeted at foreigners.
Tipping. Small bill tipping is encouraged as people are generally poor and tipping is a significant part of their income.
Scams. A common scam of vendors, ticket sellers, taxi drivers etc. will try is to claim that you only gave him a 10LE note, when you gave him a 100LE note – this can lead to a heated argument – best to treat it as an ‘honest mistake’ so that the vendor does not lose face, then suggest that the police or tourist police can help. As a general rule whenever giving over large bills say out loud their value so both you and the vendor know the value of the notes.
Shopping. In Egypt, prices are often increased for foreigners, so if you see a price on a price tag, it may be wise to learn the local Eastern Arabic numerals:

NOMAD MANIA EGYPT
Experiences
Cruise down the Nile
Experience Belly dance
Haggle at the bazaar
Play/hear sistrum. A musical instrument of the percussion family, chiefly associated with ancient Egypt. It consists of a handle and a U-shaped metal frame, made of brass or bronze and between 30 and 76 cm in width. When shaken, the small rings or loops of thin metal on its movable crossbars produce a sound that can be from a soft clank to a loud jangling.
Sham al-Naseem is an Egyptian national holiday marking the beginning of spring. It always falls on Easter Monday, the day after Easter. The holiday is celebrated by both Muslim Egyptians and Christian Egyptians alike, it is considered a national festival in Egypt, whose history goes back to ancient Egyptian times. The main features of the festival are: People spend all day out picnicking in any space of green, public gardens, on the Nile, or at the zoo. Traditional food eaten on this day consists mainly of fesikh (a fermented, salted and dried grey mullet), lettuce, scallions or green onions, and termes. Coloring boiled eggs, then eating and gifting them.

EGYPT – CENTRAL – Cairo, Giza, Faiyum, Beni Suef, Minya
Historic Cairo. World Heritage Site. Tucked away amid the modern urban area of Cairo lies one of the world’s oldest Islamic cities, with its famous mosques, madrasas, hammams and fountains. Founded in the 10th century, it became the new centre of the Islamic world, reaching its golden age in the 14th century.
Islamic Cairo refers to the central parts around the old walled city and around the Citadel of Cairo. “Islamic” Cairo refers to the city’s rich history and heritage since its foundation in the early period of Islam, while distinguishing it from the nearby Ancient Egyptian sites of Giza and Memphis. This area holds one of the largest and densest concentrations of historic architecture in the Islamic world. It is characterized by hundreds of mosques, tombs, madrasas, mansions, caravanserais, and fortifications dating from throughout the Islamic era of Egypt.
The history of Cairo begins with the conquest of Egypt by Muslim Arabs in 640. The choice of this location may have been due to its slightly closer proximity to Arabia and Mecca, the fear of strong remaining Christian and Hellenistic influence in Alexandria, and Alexandria’s vulnerability to Byzantine counteroffensives arriving by sea (which did indeed occur).
The most prominent architectural heritage of medieval Cairo, however, dates from the Mamluk period, from 1250 to 1517 AD. The Mamluk sultans and elites were eager patrons of religious and scholarly life, commonly building religious or funerary complexes whose functions could include a mosque, madrasa, khanqah (for Sufis), water distribution centers (sabils), and mausoleum for themselves and their families. Among the best-known examples of Mamluk monuments in Cairo are the huge Mosque-Madrasa of Sultan Hasan, the Mosque of Amir al-Maridani, the Mosque of Sultan al-Mu’ayyad (whose twin minarets were built above the gate of Bab Zuwayla), the Sultan Al-Ghuri complex, the funerary complex of Sultan Qaytbay in the Northern Cemetery, and the trio of monuments in the Bayn al-Qasrayn area comprising the complex of Sultan al-Mansur Qalawun, the Madrasa of al-Nasir Muhammad, and the Madrasa of Sultan Barquq.
Shrines and mausoleums. al-Hussein Mosque, the Mausoleum of Imam al-Shafi’i. Some of these are in the vast cemetery areas known as the City of the Dead
Citadel. Saladin began construction in 1176 on a promontory of the nearby Muqattam Hills overlooking the city. The Citadel remained the residence of the rulers of Egypt until the late 19th century

Wadi Al-Hitan (Whale Valley). World Heritage Site. In the Western Desert of Egypt, contains invaluable fossil remains of the earliest, and now extinct, a suborder of whales, Archaeoceti. These fossils represent one of the major stories of evolution: the emergence of the whale as an ocean-going mammal from a previous life as a land-based animal. This is the most important site in the world for the demonstration of this stage of evolution. It portrays vividly the form and life of these whales during their transition. The number, concentration and quality of such fossils here are unique, as are their accessibility and setting in an attractive and protected landscape. The fossils of Al-Hitan show the youngest archaeocetes, in the last stages of losing their hind limbs.

The globally important fossils of Wadi Al-Hitan (Whale Valley), in the Western Desert of Egypt, provide dramatic evidence of one of the iconic stories of evolution: the emergence of whales as ocean-going mammals, from their previous life as land-based animals.
Only about 1,000 visitors a year drive into Wadi Al-Hitan by 4WD because the track is unpaved and crosses unmarked desert sands.
Visitors are restricted to prearranged guided tours along a prescribed trail. Since part of Wadi Al-Hitan was made into a tourist venue, walkways between the main fossils have been laid out and small shelters built. This public park is now regularly visited by tourist groups, and a small campsite is present. The valley is located behind a mountain known as Garet Gohannam “the Mountain of Hell”. In the light of the setting sun, the mountain seems ablaze with an eerie red light.

Tentative WHS
Dahshour archaeological area. Tentative WHS(01/11/1994)
El Fayoum: Kom Aushim (Karanis), Dimai (Soknopaiounesos), Qasr Qarun (Dionysias), Batn I hrit (Theadelphia), Byahma-Medinet el Fayoum…..Tentative WHS (01/11/1994)
Gebel Qatrani Area, Lake Qaroun Nature Reserve. Tentative WHS (10/02/2003)
Great Desert Landscapes. Tentative WHS (12/06/2003)
Helwan Observatory. Tentative WHS (03/11/2010)
Minia. Tentative WHS (01/11/1994)
Necropolises of Middle Egypt, from the Middle Empire to the Roman period. Tentative WHS (28/07/2003)
Oasis of Fayoum, hydraulic remains and ancient cultural landscapes. Tentative WHS (28/07/2003)
Raoudha nilometre in Cairo. Tentative WHS (28/07/2003)
Museums: Tala: Sadat Museum

GIZA
Memphis and its Necropolis – the Pyramid Fields from Giza to Dahshur. World Heritage Site. The capital of the Old Kingdom of Egypt has some extraordinary funerary monuments, including rock tombs, ornate mastabas, temples and pyramids. In ancient times, the site was considered one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

Cairo has the oldest and largest film and music industries in the Arab world, as well as the world’s second-oldest institution of higher learning, Al-Azhar University. Many international media, businesses, and organizations have regional headquarters in the city; the Arab League has had its headquarters in Cairo for most of its existence.
Cairo, like many other megacities, suffers from high levels of pollution and traffic.
Cairo Airport (CAI)
Cairo Metro. One of the only two metro systems in Africa (the other in Algiers), and ranks amongst the fifteen busiest in the world, with over 1 billion annual passenger rides.
Cairo Ramses Station. The main railway station of Cairo was originally built as the terminal of the first rail link from Alexandria to Cairo in 1856. The current building was erected in 1892 and upgraded in 1955, 2001 and 2011 (air conditioning, new marble flooring, escalators. Some critics believe these were too modern and destroyed much of the building’s original style).
6th October Bridge is an elevated highway in central Cairo – the 20.5-kilometre  bridge and causeway crosses the Nile twice from the west bank suburbs, east through Gezira Island to Downtown Cairo, and on to connect the city to the Cairo International Airport to the east. Its name commemorates the date of ‘The Crossing’, which commenced the outbreak day of the Yom Kippur War in 1973.
The bridge and causeway were completed in 1996, with construction taking nearly 30 years. It has been called the ‘spinal cord’ of Cairo, with approximately half a million Cairene people using it daily. Due to its role as Cairo’s central East-West automobile and truck route, the bridge and causeway is nearly always crowded with traffic, with the trip from one end to another taking up to 45 minutes.

Egyptian Museum. Tentative WHS (2021). Located in the heart of Tahrir Square, Cairo, the Egyptian Museum is a unique building designed to host the world’s oldest collection of Pharaonic art and monuments. Built on an area of 13,600 sq. meters, with more than 100 exhibition halls. Designed by the French architect Marcel Dourgnon, it was the first purpose-built museum with an avant-garde design.
With the largest ancient Egyptian collection in the world, it has always been the flagship of museums for the study, research, conservation, and exhibition practices related to ancient Egypt and the influence it exerted on many other historical civilizations. The Museum displays an extensive collection spanning from prehistory up to the Graeco-Roman period. The museum originally contained a library, conservation laboratories, and an extra piece of land that extends to the Nile bank.
Beshtak Palace. Built by the Mamluk Amir in the 14th century, it is located on al-Mu’izz street. The remains were restored in 1983 and constitute a rare surviving example of 14th-century domestic architecture in Cairo. Only one part remains. It was originally five stories tall with running water on all floors. At street level were shops. The most impressive surviving part of the palace is the large qa’a or reception hall – a coffered wooden ceiling, stucco windows of coloured glass, and a fountain of inlaid marble in the centre,  latticed wood screen) windows on the upper floors.
Abdeen Palace. Originally belonging to the royal family of Egypt, it is one of the official residences and the principal workplace of the President of Egypt, located above Qasr el-Nil Street in eastern Downtown Cairo.
It is considered one of the most sumptuous palaces in the world in terms of its adornments, paintings, and a many clocks scattered in the parlours and wings, most of which are decorated with pure gold. Construction took from 1863-1874. Cost 700,000 Egyptian pounds, 2 million Egyptian pounds for its furnishing (18 million French francs with just one Parisian furniture manufacturer. More money was also spent on the palace’s alteration, preservation and maintenance by consecutive rulers. The palace has 500 suites.
The palace today is a museum – the upper floors are reserved for visiting foreign dignitaries. The lower floors contain the Silver Museum, the Arms Museum, the Royal Family Museum, and the Presidential Gifts Museum.
Al-Gawhara Palace. Started in 1814, barracks, schools, an arsenal, a gunpowder factory and a mint as a two-storey pavilion in the style of a Turkish kushk. Destroyed by fire in 1822 and 1824, the audience hall, where the pasha received guests, contains a 1000kg chandelier sent to him by Louis-Philippe I of France. 
Heliopolis Palace. One of the three Egyptian presidential palaces and residences, the others being Montaza Palace and Ras el-Tin Palace, is located in the suburb of Heliopolis. It was originally built as the grand Heliopolis Palace Hotel in 1910.
Manial Palace. Alawiyya dynasty era palace and grounds were built in 1899 and 1929 on Rhoda Island in the Nile. Composed of five separate and distinctively styled buildings, is surrounded by Persian gardens within an extensive English Landscape garden estate park, along a small branch of the Nile. The style integrates European Art Nouveau and Rococo with many traditional Islamic architecture styles. The ceramic tile work of the entryway and the mosque was created by the Armenian ceramist David Ohannessian, originally from Kutahya.
Prince Amr Ibrahim Palace. On Cairo’s Zamalek island, it is used as Egypt’s first ceramics museum and as an art center. Built in 1921, it cost 200 million euros. The palace was used by the Prince as a summer residence. The total area is 850 square meters with a basement and two floors. The palace is surrounded by a 2,800 square metre garden.
Tahra Palace. Designed by Antonio Lasciac, it was mainly built for Princess Amina, daughter of Khedive Ismail and mother of Mohamed Taher Pasha. It was built in “Italianate Palazzo” style.

Vestiges of the Past
Amarna archaeological site (Akhetaten). The remains of the capital city newly established (1346 BC) and built by the Pharaoh Akhenaten of the late Eighteenth Dynasty, and abandoned shortly after his death (1332 BC).
Location: on the east bank of the Nile 58 km south of the city of al-Minya and 312 km (194 mi) south of Cairo and 402 km north of Luxor.. The region flourished from the Amarna Period up to the later Roman era.
Meidum Archaeological Site. Archaeological site with a large pyramid and several mudbrick mastabas. The pyramid was Egypt’s first straight-sided one, but it partially collapsed in ancient times. The area is located around 100 km south of Cairo.
The second extension turned the original step pyramid design into a true pyramid by filling in the steps with limestone encasing. The outer layer was founded on sand and not on rock and the outer surface was polished and this severely compromised the stability and is likely to have caused the collapse of the Meidum Pyramid in a downpour while the building was still under construction.
The Meidum Pyramid seems never to have been completed. In its ruined state, the structure is 213 feet high with the entrance in the north, 66 feet (20 meters) above present ground level. The steep descending passage 17 meters long leads to a horizontal passage, just below the original ground level, that then leads to a vertical shaft 10 feet (3.0 meters) high that leads to the corbelled burial chamber itself. The chamber is unlikely to have been used for any burial.
Pyramid of Djoser (Step Pyramid) In the Saqqara necropolis, northwest of the city of Memphis. The 6-tier, 4-sided structure is the earliest colossal stone building in Egypt. It was built in the 27th century BC during the Third Dynasty for the burial of Pharaoh Djoser. The pyramid is the central feature of a vast mortuary complex in an enormous courtyard surrounded by ceremonial structures and decoration.
The pyramid went through several revisions and redevelopments of the original plan. The pyramid originally stood 62.5 metres (205 ft) tall, with a base of 109 m × 121 m (358 ft × 397 ft) and was clad in polished white limestone.
The step pyramid (or proto-pyramid) is considered to be the earliest large-scale cut stone construction made by man, although the nearby enclosure wall “Gisr el-Mudir” is suggested by some Egyptologists to predate the complex, and the South American pyramids at Caral are contemporary.
The social implications of such a large and carefully sculpted stone structure are staggering. The process of building such a structure would be far more labor-intensive than previous monuments of mud-brick.
Under the step pyramid is a labyrinth of tunnelled chambers and galleries that total nearly 6 km in length and connect to a central shaft 7 m square and 28 m deep. These spaces provide room for the king’s burial, the burial of family members, and the storage of goods and offerings. The entrance to the 28 m shaft was built on the north side of the pyramid, a trend that would remain throughout the Old Kingdom. The sides of the underground passages are limestone inlaid with blue faience tile to replicate reed matting. On the east side of the pyramid, eleven shafts 32 m deep were constructed and annexed to horizontal tunnels for the royal harem.
The burial chamber was a vault constructed of four courses of well-dressed granite. It had one opening sealed with a 3.5-ton block after the burial. No body was recovered as the tomb had been extensively robbed.
The Djoser complex is surrounded by a wall of light Tura limestone 10.5 m (34 ft) high. Beyond the enclosure wall is a trench dug into the underlying rock. At 750 m (2,460 ft; 1,430 cu) long and 40 m (130 ft; 76 cu) wide, the trench is the largest structure of this kind in the Memphis necropolis. It is rectangular, and oriented on the north-south axis. A roofed colonnade with twenty pairs of limestone columns 6.6 m (22 ft).
Pyramid of Senusret II. A pyramid complex constructed for the pharaoh Senusret II in the Twelfth Dynasty. Senusret II took a complete departure from the usual practice of having a corridor on the north side – typical of the Old Kingdom and early Middle Kingdom pyramids^[2] – and had instead built a narrow, vertical entrance shaft under a princess’ tomb located about a dozen yards off to the east of the southern pyramid face.
Pyramids of Giza. (Giza Necropolis) includes the Great Pyramid of Giza (also known as the Pyramid of Cheops or Khufu and constructed c. 2580 – c. 2560 BCE), the Pyramid of Khafre, and the modest-sized Pyramid of Menkaure, along with their associated pyramid complexes and the Great Sphinx of Giza. All were built during the Fourth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom of Ancient Egypt. The site also includes several cemeteries and the remains of a worker’s village. The site is at the edges of the Western Desert, approximately 9 kilometres (5.6 mi) west of the Nile River in the city of Giza, and about 13 kilometres (8 mi) southwest of the city centre of Cairo.
The Great Pyramid and the Pyramid of Khafre are the largest pyramids built in ancient Egypt and one of the Seven Wonders of the World. It is by far the oldest of the Ancient Wonders and the only one still in existence.
Khufu’s pyramid still has a limited number of casing stones at its base. These casing stones were made of fine white limestone quarried from the nearby range. Khafre’s pyramid, completed in 2570 BCE, appears larger than the adjacent Khufu Pyramid by virtue of its more elevated location, and the steeper angle of inclination of its construction—it is, in fact, smaller in both height and volume. Khafre’s pyramid retains a prominent display of casing stones at its apex.
The sides of all three of the Giza pyramids were astronomically oriented to the north-south and east-west within a small fraction of a degree. The arrangement of the pyramids is a representation of the Orion constellation according to the disputed Orion correlation theory. A workforce of 10,000 labourers working in three-month shifts took around 30 years to build a pyramid. The complex is surrounded by a large stone wall, outside is a town where the pyramid workers were housed.
Royal Necropolis of Dahshur is a royal necropolis located in the desert on the west bank of the Nile approximately 40 kilometres (25 mi) south of Cairo. It is known chiefly for several pyramids, two of which are among the oldest, largest and best preserved in Egypt, built from 2613–2589 BC.
The Dahshur pyramids were an extremely important learning experience for the Egyptians. It provided them with the knowledge and know-how to transition from step-sided pyramids to smooth-sided pyramids.
The first of the Dahshur pyramids was the Bent Pyramid (2613–2589 BC), built under the rule of King Sneferu. The Bent Pyramid was the first attempt at building a smooth sided pyramid but proved to be an unsuccessful build due to the miscalculations made on the structural weight that was being placed onto the soft ground (sand, gravel, and clay), which tended to subside. The block weight was not distributed appropriately, causing the angle of the pyramid to be off and achieving the name “the Bent Pyramid”.
Realizing his shortcomings and learning from his mistakes, King Sneferu ordered the building of the second pyramid of Dahshur, the Red Pyramid. It was 4-sided, and a free-standing pyramid rising to a height of 341 feet (104 meters), with an angle of 43 degrees.^[3] The Red Pyramid’s name stems from the material used to construct the pyramid, red limestone. This pyramid is believed to be the resting place of King Sneferu.
White Pyramid, located within Dahshur is that of the 12th Dynasty King Amenemhat II (1929–1895 BC). This pyramid has not been preserved as well.
The Black Pyramid dates from the later reign of Amenemhat III and, although badly eroded, it remains the most imposing monument at the site after the two Sneferu pyramids. The polished granite pyramidion or capstone of the Black Pyramid is on display in the main hall of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

Religious Temples
Al-Azhar Mosque. One of the most important and lasting institutions founded in the Fatimid period was the Mosque of al-Azhar, founded in 970 AD, which competes with the Qarawiyyin in Fes for the title of the oldest university in the world. Today, al-Azhar University is the foremost center of Islamic learning in the world and one of Egypt’s largest universities with campuses across the country. The mosque itself retains significant Fatimid elements but has been added to and expanded in subsequent centuries.
Ibn Tulun Mosque. The oldest mosque to retain its original form and a rare example of Abbasid architecture, from the classical period of Islamic civilization. It was built in 876–879 AD in a style inspired by the Abbasid capital of Samarra in Iraq. It is one of the largest mosques in Cairo and is often cited as one of the most beautiful.
Mosque-Madrassa of Sultan Hassan. Monumental mosque and madrasa located in the historic district of Cairo. It was built between 1356 and 1363 during the Bahri Mamluk period. The mosque was considered remarkable for its massive size and innovative architectural components and is still considered one of the most impressive historic monuments in Cairo today.
The construction is considered all the more remarkable as it coincided with the devastation wrought by the Black Plague, which struck Cairo repeatedly from the mid-14th century onwards. Construction costs amounted to over one million dinars, making it the most expensive mosque in medieval Cairo.
The importance and scale of the building project also attracted craftsmen from all over the Mamluk empire, including Anatolia, which may explain the diversity and innovativeness of the mosque’s design and decoration. Due to its location near the Citadel and massive and sturdy construction, it was used as a fortified position or as a platform to launch attacks on the Citadel.
In 1869 construction began on a monumental new mosque, the Mosque of ar-Rifa’i, right next to the existing mosque of Sultan Hasan. Completed in 1912, the two buildings together now dominate the old Rumayla Square across from the Citadel. Today the square is occupied by a large traffic circle and has been renamed Salah ad-Din Square.
The building is 500m X 68m wide and 36m high. The longer sides have vertical rows of eight windows each on four stories inside. The top edge of the exterior facades are crowned by a thick cornice of muqarnas projecting 1.5 meters over the rest of the wall
The mosque today has two minarets – the southern original one is the highest minaret of Mamluk architecture at 84m. The northern one collapsed in 1659 and was rebuilt in its current form in 1671-72.
The entrance portal is gigantic at 38 meters high. Although the exterior walls of the building are stone, the interior is brick. The enormous central square courtyard is surrounded by four monumental iwans (vaulted chambers open on one side) and four madrasas devoted to one of the four madhhabs (schools of thought in Sunni Islamic jurisprudence). The chamber is decorated with multicoloured marble mosaic panelling. The round dome (12 meters in diameter) is sculpted into muqarnas. The Cenotaph at the middle of the mausoleum chamber is dated to 1384, but Sultan Hasan’s body was never found after he was killed, and as such he was never buried here.
Muhammad Ali Mosque. A mosque situated on the summit of the citadel, this Ottoman mosque has twin minarets, the most visible mosque in Cairo. Built between 1830 and 1848, The 21m diameter and 52m high central dome is surrounded by four small and four semicircular domes in a square plan 41×41 meters. Two elegant cylindrical minarets rise to 82 meters.
The monumental tower clock was gifted by King Louis Philippe of France around 1836-1840. The clock was reciprocated with the obelisk of Luxor now standing in Place de la Concorde in Paris.
St. Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Cathedral. The Seat of the Coptic Orthodox Pope, Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria, it was consecrated in 1963. The church is dedicated to St Mark the Evangelist, an apostle of Jesus and founder of the Coptic Church. Relics of his life are kept inside. It was until 2019 (after the inauguration of the new Nativity Cathedral) by far the largest cathedral in Africa and the Middle East. It has a capacity for 5,000 worshipers.

Modern Architecture Buildings
Cairo Marriott Hotel. Its central wing was built as the Gezirah Palace in 1869 and converted to a luxury hotel in 1894. 1,087 rooms in two identical twenty-story buildings with the palace between. On the roof of the palace is an open-air theatre which faces the Nile and central Cairo. In the late 1970s, the two large towers were added and the entire hotel was completely rebuilt.
Cairo Tower. At 187 m (614 ft), it is the tallest structure in Egypt and North Africa. In 1971, it was surpassed by Hillbrow Tower in South Africa. Sometimes considered Egypt’s second most famous landmark after the Pyramids of Giza, it is on Gezira Island. Built from 1956 to 1961 in a partially open lattice-work design intended to evoke a pharaonic lotus plant, the tower is crowned by a circular observation deck and a revolving restaurant. The funds for the construction originated from the CIA to Nasser as a personal gift for stopping the Algerian Revolution. Affronted by the attempt to bribe him, Nasser decided to publicly rebuke the U.S. government by transferring all of the funds for the use of the tower construction visible from the US Embassy just across the Nile, as a taunting symbol of Egypt’s, Africa and the Middle East’s resistance, revolutions and pride”.
Called Roosevelt’s endowment”, it was mistakenly interpreted as Roosevelt’s erection and the Americans called it “Nasser’s prick”. 2009 LED lights added.
Yacoubian Building. Built in 1937, it was the home of the crème de la crème of Egyptian society who lived in the building during the city’s heyday of the 1930s and 1940s. Located on No. 34 on Talaat Harb, Cairo, the Art Deco style edifice was named after its Armenian owner and businessman Hagop Yacoubian. The once-chic, now rundown, building serves as a metaphor for Cairo’s own deterioration particularly in the 2003 Arabic language novel The Yacoubian Building by Alaa Al Aswany. Based on the book, an award-winning film was made in 2006. The Yacoubian Building in Beirut, Lebanon belongs to the same family.

World of Nature
Lake Qarun Protected Area. Ancient lake in the northwest of the Faiyum Oasis, 80 km (50 mi) southwest of Cairo, Egypt. In prehistory, it was a freshwater lake, with an area of 1,270 km² – 1,700 km². It persists today as a smaller saltwater lake called Birket Qarun 43 m (140 ft) below sea-level and covers about 202 square kilometres. It is a source for tilapia.
The lake is first recorded from about 3000 BC and for the most part it would only be filled with high flood waters. The lake was bordered by neolithic settlements. In 2300 BC, the waterway from the Nile to the natural lake was widened and deepened to make a canal that now is known as the Bahr Yussef. The lake was eventually abandoned due to the nearest branch of the Nile shrinking from 230 BC.
Wadi El-Rayan Protected Area. The valley of Wadi El-Rayan is 1759 km², 113 km² of which are the Wadi El Rayan man-made lakes 65 km southwest of Faiyum city and 80 km west of the Nile River. Wadi El Rayan Waterfalls between the two lakes are considered to be the largest waterfalls in Egypt.
Wadi El Rayan accommodates one of the world’s few remaining populations of the endangered slender-horned gazelle.

Hospitality Legends
Cafe Riche. Opened in 1908 at 29th of Talaat Harb Street and a landmark, it was at times a meeting place for intellectuals and revolutionaries and witnessed many historically significant events over the 20th century. It is said to be where King Farouk saw his second wife, Nariman Sadek; where the perpetrator of the 1919 failed assassination attempt on Egypt’s last Coptic Prime Minister, Youssef Wahba Pacha lay in wait for his target; and where several members of the resistance during the 1919 revolution met the basement to organize their activities and print their flyers. Patrons included the political novelist Naguib Mahfouz and the then-future president Gamal Abdel Nasser.
Café Riche was closed for almost a decade in the 1990s. The earthquake of October 1992 caused considerable damage. The decline in popularity of the café has been credited to the rise of digital media. Small businesses are no longer the major gathering place for the younger generation. During the 2011 revolution, it served as a refuge to the many protesters in the city.
El Fishawi Cafe. Deep in the maze of narrow passages of Khan el-Khalili bazaar, El Fishawy Cafe has been serving tea, coffee, and sheesha to locals and travellers for over two centuries. To find Cairo’s most famous cafe, ask for directions. Beautiful old mirrors with intricately carved wooden frames adorn the alley walls. Moorish tiles grace the floor and “Arabian Nights” lighting dangles from the ceiling. Open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It is frequented by writers politicians and groups of women who socialize over their sheeshas.
Gezirah Palace Hotel. The Gezirah Palace was one of the Egyptian royal palaces of the Muhammad Ali Dynasty and opened in 1879. It was converted into The Ghezireh Palace Hotel in 1894. The Gezirah Palace is currently the central part of the Cairo Marriott Hotel complex (see above), between the hotel’s pair of towers, on Gezira Island north of the 6th October Bridge.
Windsor Hotel and Barrel Lounge. This former officer’s club at the Windsor Hotel in Downtown Cairo is one of the last remnants of the British colonial era. Built at the turn of the 20th century as
the Egyptian royal family’s bathhouse, the hotel’s two-part lounge and barrel
bar (known to all as the Windsor Bar) are the definite highlight. Striped and cushioned
armchairs and sofas arranged around grand coffee tables offer varied seating. Gazelle antlers, soft lampshade chandeliers, the deep wooden bar and wainscot panelling.

Markets
El Azbakeya Wall
Khan al Khalili market
Souq El Gom’aa (Friday’s Market)

Urban Legends
Al-Azhar Park. This public park cost $30 million as a gift to Cairo from Aga Khan IV, a descendant of the Fatimid Caliphs of Cairo. A total of 1.5 million cubic meters of rubble and soil were moved (80,000 truckloads. Three cisterns were integrated to improve the supply of potable water to the city of Cairo. Opened to the public in 2005, the gardens are like historical Islamic gardens, with fountains, Mamluk multicoloured stonework, sunken gardens, intersecting waterways and bold Islamic geometry.
Historic Ayyubid Wall and towers were uncovered: a wall to a depth of 15 meters and a 1.5 kilometres section. The walls are adorned and punctuated by crenellations, arrow slits, stairwells and chambers and two former eastern city gates.
Darb al-Ahmar, one of the poorest in Cairo, lacks adequate sanitation and rubbish collection services. lack of education, sanitation, and hygiene, insalubrious living conditions and extreme poverty. Endangered historical monuments were rehabilitated and restored: the minaret of the mosque and madrasa of Umm al-Sultan Shaaban, Khayerbek Complex (Mamluk and Ottoman monument), the Darb Shoghlan School and Umm Al-Sultan Shaaban Complex.
Tahrir (Liberation) Square. Also known as “Martyr Square”, this major square has been the location and focus for political demonstrations in Cairo, most notably those that led to the 2011 Egyptian revolution and the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak.
At the centre is a large and busy traffic circle. On the north-east side is a plaza with a statue of nationalist hero Umar Makram, celebrated for his resistance against Napoleon I’s invasion of Egypt, and beyond is the Umar Makram Mosque.
The square is the northern terminus of the historic Qasr al-Ayni Street, the western terminus of Talaat Harb Street, and via Qasr al-Nil Street crossing its southern portion it has direct access to the Qasr al-Nil Bridge crossing the nearby Nile River.
The area around Tahrir Square includes the Egyptian Museum, the Folklore Arts House, the Mogamma government building, the Headquarters of the Arab League building, the Nile Hotel, Kasr El Dobara Evangelical Church and the original downtown campus of the American University in Cairo. The Cairo Metro serves Tahrir Square with the Sadat Station,
Tahrir Square was the focal point of the 2011 Egyptian revolution against former president Hosni Mubarak. Over 50,000 protesters first occupied the square on 25 January and 300,000 people on Feb 2 when violence erupted between the pro-Mubarak and pro-democracy demonstrators. A Facebook page called “Tahrir Square was maintained by a rotating staff of twenty during the uprising, particularly to offset the lack of and/or distorted coverage of events and responses in the state-run media outlets.
In 2013, millions converged on Tahrir Square to demonstrate against the Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, demanding his resignation from office

Monuments
Omar Makram Statue. (1750-1822) was an Egyptian political leader at the time of the 1798 French invasion (led by Napoleon) and in the subsequent political disorders. After the French withdrew in 1801, control of Egypt was nominally restored to the Ottoman Empire, but was disputed between the old Mamluk elite, Egyptian nobles, and the Ottomans. Makram allied with Muhammad Ali, the commander of Albanian troops within the army sent by the Empire to restore order.
In May 1805, Egyptians led by Makram forced the Ottomans to replace the Wāli Ahmad Khurshid Pasha with Muhammad Ali. Makram soon discovered that Muhammad Ali planned to rule Egypt himself. Makram objected to a foreign ruler. Muhammad Ali exiled Makram to Damietta in 1809, where he stayed for four years. Makram then moved to Tanta, where he died in 1822.
A mosque named for him and designed by Mario Rossi stands in Tahrir Square in Cairo. Statue of Ibrahim Pasha. (1789 – 1848) was the eldest son of Muhammad Ali, the Wāli and unrecognized Khedive of Egypt and Sudan. He served as a general in the Egyptian army. In the final year of his life, he succeeded his still-living father as ruler of Egypt and Sudan, due to the latter’s ill health. It extended over the other dominions that his father had brought under Egyptian rule, namely Syria, Hejaz, Morea, Thasos, and Crete. Ibrahim pre-deceased his father, dying only four months after acceding to the throne. Ibrahim remains one of the most celebrated members of the Muhammad Ali dynasty, particularly for his impressive military victories, including several crushing defeats of the Ottoman Empire. Among Egyptian historians, Ibrahim, his father Muhammad Ali, and his son Ismail the Magnificent are held in far higher esteem than other rulers from the dynasty, who were largely viewed as indolent and corrupt; this is largely the result of efforts by his grandson Fuad I of Egypt to ensure the positive portrayal of his paternal ancestors in the Royal Archives that he created, which were the primary source for Egyptian history from the 1920s until the 1970s.

OTHER DESTINATIONS
El Alamein War Cemetery, El Alamein. The Dark Side. The campaign in the Western Desert was fought between the Commonwealth forces (with, later, the addition of two brigades of Free French and one each of Polish and Greek troops) all based in Egypt, and the Axis forces (German and Italian) based in Libya. The battlefield, across which the fighting surged back and forth between 1940 and 1942, was the 1,000 kilometres of desert between Alexandria in Egypt and Benghazi in Libya. It was a campaign of manoeuvre and movement, the objectives being the control of the Mediterranean, the link with the east through the Suez Canal, the Middle East oil supplies and the supply route to Russia through Persia. EL ALAMEIN WAR CEMETERY contains the graves of men who died at all stages of the Western Desert campaigns, brought in from a wide area, but especially those who died in the Battle of El Alamein at the end of October 1942 and in the period immediately before that. The cemetery now contains 7,240 Commonwealth burials of the Second World War, of which 815 are unidentified. There are also 102 war graves of other nationalities. The ALAMEIN CREMATION MEMORIAL, which stands in the southeastern part of El Alamein War Cemetery, commemorates more than 600 men whose remains were cremated in Egypt and Libya during the war, under their faith. The entrance to the cemetery is formed by the ALAMEIN MEMORIAL. The Land Forces panels commemorate more than 8,500 soldiers of the Commonwealth who died in the campaigns in Egypt and Libya, and in the operations of the Eighth Army in Tunisia up to 19 February 1943, who have no known grave. It also commemorates those who served and died in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Persia. The Air Forces panels commemorate more than 3,000 airmen of the Commonwealth who died in the campaigns in Egypt, Libya, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Greece, Crete and the Aegean, Ethiopia, Eritrea and the Somalilands, the Sudan, East Africa, Aden and Madagascar, who have no known grave. Those who served with the Rhodesian and South African Air Training Scheme and have no known grave are also commemorated here.

MARSA MATROUH. A port 240 km (150 mi) west of Alexandria and 222 km (138 mi) east of Sallum on the main highway from the Nile Delta to the Libyan border. The city is also accessible from the south via another highway running through the Western Desert towards Siwa Oasis and Bahariya Oasis. The city features soft white sand beaches and calm transparent waters; the bay is protected from the high seas by a series of rocks forming a natural breakwater, with a small opening to allow access to light vessels.
Agiba Beach. Agiba means ‘miracle’ in Arabic – about 24km west of Marsa Matruh, is a small, spectacular cove, accessible only via a path leading down from the clifftop. The water here is a dazzling clear turquoise. It’s packed in summer and near empty the rest of the year. Note that it isn’t ideal for toddlers, as the waves roll in strongly. Microbuses to Agiba leave from in front of the National Bank of Egypt.
About 1km to 2km east of the hilltop above Agiba, there’s a long expanse of accessible beach with fine sand and deep blue water, which is far less crowded than the cove. Confusingly, this stretch of shore is also known as Agiba Beach. To get here, take the turn-off marked by a blue, white and yellow sign (in Arabic) 3km west of Carol’s Beau Rivage resort. This paved road leads to the beachfront; the entrance is gated, but there’s no fee.

SIWA OASIS (pop 33,000) is an urban oasis between the Qattara Depression and the Great Sand Sea in the Western Desert, 50 km (30 mi) east of the Libyan border, and 560 km (348 mi) from Cairo. About 80 km (50 mi) in length and 20 km (12 mi) wide, Siwa Oasis is one of Egypt’s most isolated settlements with about 33,000 Berbers with a unique and isolated desert culture and a language called Siwi; they are also fluent in the Egyptian dialect of Arabic “Masry” meaning Egyptian.
Its fame lies primarily in its ancient role as the home to an oracle of Ammon, the ruins of which are a popular tourist attraction which gave the oasis its ancient name Oasis of Amun Ra. Historically, it was part of Ancient Egypt.
In the 26th Dynasty, a necropolis was established. Ancient Greek settlers at Cyrene made contact with the oasis then (7th century BCE), and the oracle temple of Amun (Greek: Zeus Ammon), who, Herodotus was told, took the image here of a ram. In 708 the Siwans resisted an Islamic army and probably did not convert until the 12th century. Only seven families with 40 men lived at the oasis in 1203.
The Siwans are a Berber people, so demographically and culturally were more closely related to nearby Libya, which has a large Berber population, than to Egypt, which has a negligible Berber population.
Climate: hot desert
Culture. Until a tarmac road was built to the Mediterranean coast in the 1980s Siwa’s only links with the outside world were by arduous camel tracks through the desert. These were used to export dates and olives, bring trade goods, or carry pilgrims on the route which linked the Maghreb to Cairo and hence to Mecca. As a result of this isolation, Siwis developed a unique natural culture manifested in its crafts of basketry, pottery, silverwork and embroidery and in its style of dress. The most visible and celebrated examples of this were the bridal silver and the ensemble of silver ornaments and beads that women wore in abundance to weddings and other ceremonies. The best known of these pieces is a huge silver disc called ‘adrim’ and a torc, called ‘aghraw’ from which it hung over the breast.
The Siyaha Festival, in honour of the town’s traditional patron saint Sidi Sulayman, is unique to Siwa. Siwi children traditionally also celebrated Ashura by lighting torches, singing, and exchanging sweets. Adults’ celebration was limited to the preparation of a large meal.
Homosexuality. Siwa is of special interest to anthropologists and sociologists because of its historical acceptance of male homosexuality and even rituals celebrating same-sex marriage – traditions that the Egyptian authorities have sought to repress, with increasing success, since the early twentieth century. The practice probably arose because from ancient times unmarried men and adolescent boys were required to live and work together outside the town of Shali.
Although Siwan men could take up to four wives, “Siwan customs allow a man but one boy to whom he is bound by a stringent code of obligations.” In 1937 the anthropologist Walter Cline wrote the first detailed ethnography of the Siwans in which he noted: “All normal Siwan men and boys practice sodomy…among themselves, the natives are not ashamed of this; they talk about it as openly as they talk about love of women, and many if not most of their fights arise from homosexual competition….Prominent men lend their sons to each other. All Siwans know the matings which have taken place among their sheiks and their sheiks’ sons…Most of the boys used in sodomy are between twelve and eighteen years of age.” Homosexuality was not merely rampant, it was raging…Every dancer had his boyfriend…[and] chiefs had harems of boys”.
In the late 1940s, Siwan women were “badly neglected”, but Siwan men “will kill each other for a boy. Never for a woman”, although as Maugham noted, marriage to a boy had become illegal by then. Now the practice is not followed.” Despite the multiplicity of sources for these practices, the Egyptian authorities and even the Siwan tribal elders have attempted to repress the historical and anthropological record. Agriculture is the main activity of modern Siwa, particularly the cultivation of dates and olives. Handicrafts like basketry are also of regional importance.
Tourism has in recent decades become a vital source of income. Much attention has been given to creating hotels that use local materials and display local styles. One of the main attractions is the use of eco-friendly materials and practices in the design of hotels throughout Siwa.
Siwa archaeological area. Tentative WHS: (01/11/1994). Vestiges of the Past. Contains the temple of Oracle and the temple of Amun “Ubaydah” together with the different archaeological areas and monuments.
The ancient fortress of Siwa, known as the Shali Ghadi was built on natural rock of salt and mud-brick and palm logs. Gradually eroded by infrequent rains and slowly collapsing, the Shali remains a prominent feature, towering five stories above the modern town and lit at night by floodlights.
Other local historic sites of interest include the remains of the oracle temple; the Gebel al Mawta (the Mountain of the Dead), a Roman-era necropolis featuring dozens of rock-cut tombs; and “Cleopatra’s Bath”, an antique natural spring. The fragmentary remains of the oracle temple, with some inscriptions dating from the 4th century BCE, lie within the ruins of Aghurmi. The revelations of the oracle fell into disrepute under the Roman occupation of Egypt.

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NILE VALLEY – LOWER EGYPT (Alexandria, Gharbia, Damietta)
Abu Mena. World Heritage Site. A town, monastery complex and Christian pilgrimage centre in Late Antique Egypt, about 50 km southwest of Alexandria. There are very few standing remains, but the foundations of most major buildings, such as the Great Basilica, are easily discernible. Recent agricultural efforts in the area have led to a significant rise in the water table, which has caused a number of the site’s buildings to collapse or become unstable.
Menas of Alexandria was martyred in the late 3rd or early 4th century. His body was taken from Alexandria on a camel into the desert. The camel refused to continue walking, this was taken as a sign of divine will, and the body’s attendants buried it on that spot.
Constantine ordered the construction of a church at the site and by the late 4th century, the baptistry, basilicas, public buildings, streets, monasteries, houses and workshops in this early Christian holy city were built over the tomb of the martyr Menas of Alexandria, who died in A.D. 296. it was a significant pilgrimage site for Christians who sought healing and other miracles. Because of crowding, three major church expansions eventually took place. Abu Mena was destroyed during the early Muslim conquests of the mid-7th century.

Alexandria, Ancient Remains and the New Library. Tentative WHS (28/07/2003). In 332 BC, Alexander the Great who was welcomed as a liberator, first went to Memphis, the capital of Pharaonic Egypt, to honour the Egyptian gods and to receive the royal investiture as Pharaoh, then to the village of Rakhotis to the west of the delta near the Mediterranean, to found Alexandria whose perimeter he drew himself and ordered his architect, Dinocrates of Rhodes, to draw up the plan. Then after only six months, he left Egypt. After he died in 322 BC, he was buried in Memphis for some time. He was then brought to Alexandria by Ptolemy for re-burial in the Sema or Soma necropolis which became that of his successors, the Ptolemy dynasty. His successors, Ptolemy I and his son Ptolemy II (285-246 BC) then the whole dynasty of the Ptolemies, developed the city, built numerous grandiose monuments and decorated it in the fashion both of the Greeks and the Egyptians.
Thus in 641 AD Alexandria became a great metropolis receptive to both Egyptian and Hellenistic influences. The ancient city “Full of temples, theatres and colossal palaces, the city was magnificent, spreading five kilometres along the coast with a width of 1½ kilometres. It was surrounded by powerful fortifications and was based on an irregular quadrilateral plan. It had different quarters for the Egyptians, Greeks and Jews, as well as necropolises and residential areas. It had two ports, as the stretch of water between the coast and the island of Pharos had been divided into two by Heptastades, through an approx. 1.800 m jetty which connected the island with the land.
To the east was the Portus Magnus alongside which, from the small peninsula of Lochias right up to the quarter of Bronkhion, were the palaces of the Ptolemies, the Emporium and the Caesium, the temple which Cleopatra had built in Anthony’s honour and which was completed by Augustus and consecrated for the Imperial cult. The Heliopolis obelisks which stood in front of this monument are now in London and in New York. On an island connected to the land, Anthony built the Timonion, a royal palace to which he withdrew after the defeat of Actium. At the end of the islet of Pharos stood the tower of Pharos which gave its name to the signalling system which was so useful to the navigators. In the middle of the city was the Soma or Suma, the necropolis of the Ptolemies where Alexander was buried and the Museon, a college of erudite philosophers where the famous library founded by Ptolemy I was to be found and which was enlarged by his son Ptolemy II Philadelphus and organized by Demetrios Phaleris.
Alexandria, thanks to its port, rapidly became one of the great centres of commercial activity in Antiquity and replaced Tyre.
The Lighthouse of Alexandria was commissioned by Ptolemy II with three superimposed elements which were square, octagonal and circular (the whole structure being over 120 m high). The lighthouse was one of the seven wonders of the world in antiquity. Its outline is known only from coins, a Byzantine mosaic discovered in Libya and the remains of a similar lighthouse in Taposiris Magna. Badly damaged due to the lack of maintenance because of Alexandria’s decline during the Byzantine era, it received a final blow during an earthquake which struck the region at the beginning of the XIIth century. The Mamelukes built in its place in the XVth century the present fort of Qayt Bey (XV century). Underwater excavations brought to light some elements which had fallen into the sea, some of which are blocks of over 50 tons which, aligned on the ground, could be part of the lighthouse’s socle.
In less than a century, becoming greater than Carthage, it was deemed to be the most brilliant city after Rome where Greek culture sparkled in all its splendour. Euclides founded a school of mathematics which lasted for several centuries; there Archimedes of Syracuse made numerous discoveries. Hipparchus the father of astronomy, Eratosthenes of Cyrene, was known for his scientific geography, Heropheles the physician practised surgery there and many other scientists and scholars frequented the Museon and the library which made it famous for several centuries.
The Library of Alexandria contained between 400.000 and 700.000 rolls of papyrus dealing with all the sciences. When Julius Caesar landed in Egypt, a fire partially destroyed the library. Anthony reconstituted it with 200.000 volumes from Pergamon. A slanderous legend says that it was finally burned down by the Arab conqueror Amr Ibn al-As. In reality, the “Great Library” like the palace, probably disappeared between 270 and 250 A.D. It was certainly the greatest and the richest in the ancient world where famous people from all over the world, could be met there as well as in the Museum of which it was a part. This vast structure, which included conference halls, observatories, a park, a zoo and refectories, was unique in the world”.
Cleopatra, the last of the Ptolemy dynasty, was crowned in Alexandria; there she met Anthony and together they met their tragic end. The second city of the Roman empire with its 500.000 inhabitants, Alexandria enjoyed two more centuries of splendour. In 30 BC, Egypt became a Roman province. Vespasian was proclaimed emperor in Alexandria in 69 AD. Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius stayed there. Cleopatra “Between myth and reality, legend and history, the last of the Ptolemies is still full of fascination today. Daughter of Ptolemy XII, she acceded to the throne in 51 BC under the guardianship of the Roman senate represented by Pompey, at the same time as her brother and husband Ptolemy XIII. After Caesar’s death (44 BC) with whom she had a son, she seduced Mark Anthony, the new Master of the East. She won Phoenicia, Syria, Cyprus, part of Cilicia and the Nabatean Kingdom. The battle of Actium in 31 BC rang her death knoll. Octavius (the future Augustus) there defeated Anthony who, believing Cleopatra to be dead, committed suicide. Cleopatra, having first tried to seduce the victor, handed over Alexandria and then killed herself”.
Christianity spread very quickly and became the State religion in 392 AD. The Byzantine emperor Theodosius II ordered the destruction of the pagan temples including the famous Serapeum of Alexandria and Diocletian ordered the whole city to be sacked. A cosmopolitan cultural centre, Alexandria greatly contributed to the success of the new religion which found philosophical sustenance there and partly drew upon the tradition of ancient Egypt until the arrival of the Moslems in 642 AD.
What is there today of the ancient city? There is no lighthouse, no library, and no palaces of the Ptolemies, all have vanished. The sea near the coast conceals statues some colossal, great blocks of stones, marble or granite. Three groups:
Huge monuments and structures: Pompey’s Column is a monolithic column hewn out of a single block of Aswan granite erected by Diocletian in 297 AD – 22m high, diameter 2,70 m at the base, a socle 8 m high, a huge Corinthian capital in granite which bore the equestrian statue of Diocletian until the seventh century. Two sphinxes, other Pharaonic sphinxes, statues of Ramses II and Psamtik,
Ruins of the temple of Serapis, the famous Serapeum from the second century BC. Serapis, a combination of Greek and Egyptian gods and an immensely popular cult in the whole of the Mediterranean.
Kom el-Dikka Site in the town centre mostly monuments from the Roman era: a theatre (the only one in Egypt), thermal baths, a cistern, a residential quarter and villas with mosaics which, within the Egyptian archeological context, are of unique value.
Ancient Necropolises outside the ramparts, Mustapha Kamel hypogeum, Anfûshi necropolis has five tombs with painted walls
Alexandria is in a seismic area where, from 320 AD to 1303 AD, 22 earthquakes were recorded. The rise in the sea level of about 2,6 millimetres per year submerged part of its coast with archeological remains at 6 to 8 m. Wrecks of Greek and Roman vessels, 3100 objects some over 40 tons, Pharaonic, Greek and Roman including 5 colossal, 12 m high statues from the Ptolemaic period (two of them have been lifted out) no less than 25 sphinxes (20 have been saved).
Bibliotheca Alexandrina (The New Library). Modern Architecture Buildings. Inaugurated in 2002 near the sea, on a 60.000 m² surface area, an inclined cylinder a part of which disappears underground, a massive granite wall, a research centre, a library for the blind, a children’s library, an exhibition of manuscripts, an exhibition of calligraphy, maps and photography, a science museum, an astronomical research unit and other places for scientific and educational programmes, restoration laboratories and above all a beautiful archeological museum. The library can hold over one and a half million books and has areas to accommodate a great number of visitors and also possesses the best digital and computerized tools available to modern libraries.

Historic quarters and monuments of Rosetta/Rachid, Tentative WHS (28/07/2003). A small city in the Nile Delta, surrounded by water and sand renowned for its rich and varied agricultural production, especially rice which was exported by sea, and also wheat, barley, sugarcane, black grapes, oranges and dates. Open to the Mediterranean in the middle of the IXth century, to fortify against Byzantine it was built in 870 but took seven centuries until the Ottomans in 1517, to start three centuries (from the XVIth to the XIXth century)
This prosperity was followed by the departure of the French Expedition (1798-1801) and the great families followed by the negligence of the civil public and even religious buildings and Rachid lost its role as the main intermediary in Egyptian inland traffic. In 1859, the Suez Canal was dug and with it the new port of Port Said was developed on the eastern Delta. The two ports, Alexandria to the west and Port Said to the east became formidable rivals against which the town could offer no resistance. The almost total obstruction of the branch of the Nile (Rachid), silting up of the port and invading dunes around the town. The great Aswan Dam aggravated the situation even more as the alluviums were no longer flushed out of the delta.
Two centuries ago there were 35.000 people. Narrow streets intersecting at right angles, the last vestiges of urbanism typical of the XVIth-XVIIth centuries, lined with two- or three-storeyed houses, with mosques, hammams, oukalas… then the remains of a citadel built by Qaïtbey in 1479 where the famous Rosetta stone was found which bears an inscription in three languages, thanks to which Champollion was able to pierce the mystery of the hieroglyphs. At the beginning of the XXth century, 38 houses had been classed as historical monuments and 22 of them have survived today. A ground floor and one or two storeys, façades decorated with polychrome bricks, red, black and white, corbelling out into the street and splendid moucharabiehs (worked wood windows).
Fort Julien (Fort of Qaitbey), Rasheed. On the left or west bank of the Nile about 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) north-west of Rashid (Rosetta) on the north coast of Egypt, it was originally built by the Ottoman Empire and occupied by the French during Napoleon Bonaparte’s campaign in Egypt and Syria between 1798 and 1801. The fort became famous as the place where the Rosetta Stone was found in 1799.
The fort is a low, squat rectangular structure with a central blockhouse that overlooks the final few kilometres of the Nile before it joins the Mediterranean Sea.

The monasteries of the Arab Desert and Wadi Natrun, Tentative WHS (28/07/2003). Arid and mountainous, the Arab Desert stretches from the Nile Valley to the Red Sea. They are about 10 km south of Zafarana, on the shore of the Red Sea (about 230 km south-east of Cairo). Wadi Natrun is a 25 km long depression in the western desert halfway between Cairo and Alexandria where there are about a dozen saline lakes, two of which, the Bouhaïret el-Gounfadiya and the Bouhaïret el-Hamra, provide natron, the sodium carbonate used by the Pharaohs for mummification.
Monastery of St. Anthony. On the flank of Gabal al-Alaa al-Qibliya is the cave of St. Anthony where he lived until he died in 356 AD. The oldest monastery in Egypt. St. Anthony, with St. Pacomius (287-347 AD) was one of the first leaders of the Church, and founders of Christian monasticism. Anthony (251-356 AD) abandoned his property and retired to the Arab Desert to live there as a hermit. He chose the Gebel el Qalaa el-Qibliya to come closer to God and lived in a cave where his disciples founded a monastery.
The village had a church built on top of the Saint’s tomb (XIIIth century frescoes), chapels, bread oven, mills, cells and gardens that grew up around the cave and have survived up to the present day The church, has a square narthex and a square chancel and two wheat flour mills.
Monastery of St. Paulhe. Further to the west on the same mountain, this is where St. Paul lived for 60 years according to the legend at the beginning of the 4th century AD). Born in Thebaid around 225 AD, Paul became a hermit to escape from the persecutions of Christians under the emperor Decius, He crossed the desert and settled in a cave on the flank of Gabal el Qalaa el Qibliya, an inhospitable mountain scorched by the sun. He left numerous disciples behind at his death who, to perpetuate his memory, set up a community on the site of his tomb which became the nucleus of the present monastery. Smaller than St. Anthony, the St. Paul monastery had undergone less changes and today seems to be hemmed in with all its buildings within a medieval precinct. A square tower, a refuge for the monks in case of an attack, has chapels as at St. Anthony’s, and also cells, storerooms and water supplied through an underground canal from the monastery’s well. St. Paul’s church is decorated with numerous paintings from the XVIIIth century, including those of saints on horseback, namely St. George, St. Theodore and Michael the Archangel striking at the demons. On the church roof is a chapel. The church of St. Mercurius is located slightly above the St. Paul’s church.
Only four out of the fifty Coptic monasteries which existed in the past have survived to the present day. One is the St. Macarius monastery (Deir Abu Makaria) 94 km southeast of Cairo and the three others, the monastery of the Romans (Deir el Baramos), the monastery of the Syrians (Deir es-Souriyan) and the St. Pshoï monastery (Deir Amba Bichoi) are 10 km away from the first monastery.
The Monasteries of Natrun
The Saint Macarius Monastery was Founded in the IVth century in Wadi Natrun disciples continued living as hermits, in almost total isolation. Very quickly many isolated hermits settled in the region, and then fifty monasteries were established. Four of these monasteries survived. The most important and the biggest in Wadi Natrun and Egypt is St. Macarius. Developed remarkably in the VIth century, as it was used as a refuge by the Coptic Patriarchs of Alexandria. In 866 the church was rebuilt and the ramparts consolidated so it was able to survive to the present day. An imposing tower with three floors which was used as a refuge. The relics of St. Macarius, St. John the Baptist and the prophet Elisha are fervently venerated
The Church of the Forty-Nine Martyrs recalls the massacre of the monastery’s monks by desert plunderers in 444.
The Monastery of St. Pschoi has five churches within a walled enclosure. St. Pschoï dates  to the IXth century
The Monastery of the Syrians. 6-The Monastery of the Romans (Deir al-Baramus) The Theodore (Anba Tardus) church is no longer in use. It is next to the chapel of St. George and the St. John the Baptist church was added in the XIXth century. The three-storey tower has some vestiges from the VIIth century whilst the St. Michael church has admirable frescoes from the XIIth century.
Paromeos Monastery, Wadi El Natrun. A Coptic Orthodox monastery located in Wadi El Natrun in the Nitrian Desert and the most northern among the four current monasteries of Scetes, situated around 9 km northeast of the Monastery of Saint Pishoy.
The Paromeos Monastery is probably the oldest among the four existing monasteries of Scetes. It was founded c. 335 A.D. by Saint Macarius the Great. Destroyed in 407 A.D. by the Berbers, it was rebuilt and destroyed again in 410 A.D, so in 859-880 built 10-11m high walls around the monasteries of the Nitrian Desert. There were 12 monks in 1712, 9 in 1799, 30 in 1905, 35 in 1937, 20 in 1960 and 46 in 1970. Today, it has five churches. The oldest contains the relics of Saint Moses the Black.
Syrian Monastery, Wadi El Natrun. Founded in the 16th century, it was occupied by Syrian monks until the 19th century. The church of the Virgin, built in about 980, which is the main church of the monastery, has a mural painting representing the Ascension, from the Xth century. From the same century is the ivory screen of the iconostasis represented religious scenes, portraits and geometric designs. Other impressive frescoes decorate the semi-cupolas of the chancel. The Church of the Holy Virgin Mary contains relics. It is close to the churches of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste, of St. Hennis and St. Marutha (XVth century). Hundreds of old manuscripts are kept in the library of the monastery.

ALEXANDRIA (pop 5,200,000). The third-largest city in Egypt after Cairo and Giza, the seventh-largest city in Africa, and a major economic centre. The largest city on the Mediterranean – also called the “Bride of the Mediterranean” by locals – is the fourth-largest city in the Arab world and the ninth-largest urban area in Africa. The city extends about 40 km (25 mi) at the northern coast of Egypt along the Mediterranean Sea. Alexandria is a popular tourist destination, and also an important industrial centre because of its natural gas and oil pipelines from Suez.
Alexandria was founded in 331 BC by Alexander the Great, king of Macedon and leader of the Greek League of Corinth, during his conquest of the Achaemenid Empire. An Egyptian village named Rhacotis existed at the location and grew into the Egyptian quarter of Alexandria. Alexandria grew rapidly to become an important centre of Hellenistic civilization and remained the capital of Ptolemaic Egypt and Roman and Byzantine Egypt for almost 1,000 years, until the Muslim conquest of Egypt in AD 641, when a new capital was founded at Fustat (later absorbed into Cairo). Hellenistic Alexandria was best known for the Lighthouse of Alexandria (Pharos), one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World; its Great Library (the largest in the ancient world); and the Necropolis, one of the Seven Wonders of the Middle Ages. Alexandria was the intellectual and cultural centre of the ancient Mediterranean world for much of the Hellenistic age and late antiquity. It was at one time the largest city in the ancient world before being eventually overtaken by Rome.
The city was a major centre of early Christianity and the centre of the Patriarchate of Alexandria, which was one of the major centres of Christianity in the Eastern Roman Empire. In the modern world, the Coptic Orthodox Church and the Greek Orthodox Church of Alexandria both lay claim to this ancient heritage.
By the Arab conquest of Egypt in 641 AD, the city had already been largely plundered and lost its significance before re-emerging in the modern era. From the late 18th century, Alexandria became a major centre of the international shipping industry and one of the most important trading centres in the world, both because it profited from the easy overland connection between the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea, and the lucrative trade in Egyptian cotton.
Alexandria Airport (HBE)
Ruins of Tanis. An important archaeological site on the Tanitic branch of the Nile, which has long since silted up – in the northeastern Nile Delta. 1825: two pink granite sphinxes now in the Musée du Louvre; 1939: royal necropolis. Today the temple of Amun-Re has large obelisks fallen to the ground and lying in a single direction, Archaeologists have counted more than twenty.
Taposiris Magna. A city established by Ptolemy II Philadelphus between 280-270 BCE. The name means “great tomb of Osiris”. After Alexander the Great conquered Egypt in 332 BC, it became a center for the religious festival of Khoiak. Role in the trade between Egypt and Libya using water transportation to the harbour and then a caravan route.
Atop the Taenia ridge, an outcropping of limestone which separates the sea from Lake Maerotis, stand two monuments that were partly restored in the 1930s. One a tower used in the reconstruction of the lighthouse of Alexandria and the other is the remains of a temple of Osiris that is also believed to be the last resting place of Cleopatra.
“The Tower of Abusir” was not a lighthouse or a watchtower, but a funerary monument. The necropolis shows a variety of burial styles from sarcophagi or pyramids to columns or pilasters. This ancient settlement was occupied from the second century BC to the seventh century AD.
Cecil Hotel. Hospitality Legends. Four-star Steigenberger Cecil Hotel was built in 1929 by the Metzger family as a romantic hotel, at Saad Zaghloul Square where Cleopatra’s needles had been, in front of the Corniche. Author Somerset Maugham stayed here, as did Winston Churchill and Al Capone. Moreover, the British Secret Service maintained a suite for their operations. It was seized by the Egyptian government after the revolution in 1952, and five years later the Metzger family was expelled from the country. In 2007, after a lengthy court battle, legal ownership of the hotel was returned to the Metzger family, who subsequently sold it to the Egyptian government. It operated for many years as the Sofitel Cecil Alexandria Hotel, until it joined the Steigenberger Hotels chain in 2014.
Délices. Hospitality Legends. This old tea room has been in business since 1922 and is the place to come for tea and cake. Although much of its original grandeur has been scrubbed away, its high-ceilinged halls still exude a sense of old-world atmosphere. The patisserie here once supplied Egypt’s royalty and the cafe was a favourite haunt of Allied soldiers during WWII.
On a hot day, order the specialty Deliccino drink (ice cream and espresso milkshake). There’s also a full menu of crêpes, pasta and sandwiches. One area has been turned into a hipper, air-conditioned cafe, very popular with local women.
Trianon. Hospitality Legends. Admire the 1930s grandeur of its sensational ornate ceiling and faded but still glorious wall panels. Grab a slice of something from the patisserie selection, order a juice or a coffee, and soak up the historic atmosphere. Part of the cafe is a restaurant serving Mediterranean food, with mediocre pizzas but better plates of pasta. Trianon was a favourite haunt of the Greek poet Cavafy, who worked in offices on the floor above.

DO
Ancient temples and artifacts of ancient Egypt.
See within each city – its own history, culture, activities, and people who often differ in nature from people of other parts of Egypt.
Sporting and Recreational Clubs: If the heat is too much, you can go to one of the famous sporting clubs such as the Gezira Club located in Zamalek, or the Seid Club in Mohandiseen, where you can have a dip at the swimming pool or otherwise enjoy sitting in the shade and comfort of lush trees and gardens. Entrance for foreigners can be gained by buying a one-day ticket for 150 Egyptian pounds which enables the person to enjoy all the facilities of club including playing any sports.
Nightlife usually located inside five-star hotels or at areas such as Mohandiseen and Zamalek: Cairo Jazz Club (mohandiseen), Purple (on a boat in Zamalek), Hard Rock Cafe (inside the grand hay-at Hotel in Garden City), L’Obergine (pub and bar in Zamalek)
Desert Adventures: In the Haram District of Cairo, walk around or hire a vehicle out in the desert by the pyramids and the Sphinx. Do this is at night to see all the stars.

DIVING: Shallow reefs, walls, drift dives, coral gardens and some of the most famous wrecks in the world in crystal clear waters. Many species of sharks.
Sharm El Sheikh and Ras Mohammed, diving in The Gubal Strait, the wrecks at the Strait of Tiran, reef diving in Hurghada and Marsa Alam, the Abu Nuhas wreck system, and pelagic encounters at Brother Islands.